Monthly Archives: May 2011

“KFP 2″ Stumbles in US, Audiences Avoid 3-D Version

By
on
110

Kung Fu Panda 2

Shares of DreamWorks Animation dropped today to their lowest point in two years, and equally significant, shares of 3D hardware firm Real D plummeted over 12% (as of this writing).

The stock market was reacting to the weak domestic debut of Kung Fu Panda 2. The film’s three-day weekend gross of $47.8 million compared unfavorably to the original Kung Fu Panda‘s $60.2 million opening in 2008. The decline in attendance was even more pronounced: 6.1 million viewers for the sequel versus 8.4 million viewers for the original, or a loss of over one-third of the audience.

Only 45% of the audience opted to pay the higher 3-D ticket premium. According to Box Office Mojo: “A 3D share in the 60 percent range would have been healthy. That’s what Shrek Forever After had last May with fewer 3D venues.” The news is especially troubling for DreamWorks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg who has touted 3-D as the most revolutionary advance in filmmaking since sound and color and whose studio now makes films exclusively in 3-D. This time around, the majority of viewers chose to forgo the revolution to save a few dollars.

Kung Fu Panda 2 ended up with $68 million over the five-day holiday period, which looks especially weak compared to the four-day $61 million Memorial Day gross of Madagascar back in 2005. The bright spot: Kung Fu Panda 2 posted strong openings around the world, banking $57 million in its opening weekend from eleven countries, including powerful starts in China and Russia, and opening weekend records for an animated feature in South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and India.

“Looks That Kill” trailer by Kevin Dart and Stéphane Coëdel

By
on
25

Here’s the stylish new short film/trailer/music video for the Kevin Dart’s latest Yuki 7 and the Gadget Girls adventure:

Produced entirely in After Effects using Kevin’s artwork, co-director Coëdel says:

“Our goal here was to upgrade the overall quality compared to the previous film “A Kiss From Tokyo”. To move away from a pure tribute to movies and TV series from the 60s and develop Yuki’s world. Graphics are less sketchy, the animation smoother and we’ve got rid of all the vintage FX (film jump, retro projected backgrounds, etc…). We worked on this film during the little spare time we had, so the production spread out over a year. But the real effective time spent making it was more or less 2 and a half months.”

You can pre-order of Kevin Dart and Elizabeth Ito’s new book Looks That Kill, which includes both animated trailers on DVD, plus several behind the scene extras, at the Yuki-7 website.

Aleix Saló’s “Españistán” Exposes Spain’s Housing Bubble

By
on
3

Españistán by Aleix Saló serves as a reminder that animation is a medium for educating and informing as well as entertaining. The topic: an explanation of Spain’s housing bubble and subsequent economic crisis. Sound familiar? It’s currently the most popular animated short in Spain, which has been mired in weeks of protests and sit-ins by people who are fed up by the country’s two-party political system and its class of arrogant and out of touch politicians. Sound even more familiar?

Above is an English fansub of Españistán; the original upload has garnered over 1.3 million in the six days since its debut.

(Thanks, Animaholic)

Comment of the Day: Digital Domain Should Avoid Missteps of Others

By
on
8

Digital Domain is jumping head first into the feature animation game. Veteran studio owner and director Uli Meyer suggested in our comments that DD should look carefully at the past and avoid repeating the mistakes of other vfx houses that have tried to do the same thing:

The big post production houses are all depending on service work and the idea of creating content must be very tempting. If successful, that could mean a certain independence and less having to bid against other post houses to secure a few effects shots on the next big blockbuster. It makes a lot of sense to try and do that from a business point of view.

Framestore in the UK did go part of the way towards that goal by making A Tale Of Desperaux as a service project but have not managed to follow with one of their own (as far as I know). Being good at running an effects company does not automatically make you a film maker. Hiring a hand-full of people who have been employed by one of the other content creators before is a start but if those guys do not have the infrastructure to support them, their best ideas won’t go very far. And with infrastructure I don’t mean render farms and fur software.

If the management will allow an entirely new structure to develop, there is a chance something good can happen. And should they manage to make one film, a second won’t happen immediately and I guess they can always use their new facility to work on effects shots.

Whenever I read about news like this, I have this idea that the people in charge should look at all the other failed similar attempts by others and try and learn from those mistakes. There are plenty of them. I sincerely hope those mistakes won’t happen here, only time will tell. As to family films — there is always room for another one as long as it is a good one, whatever that is. Good luck!

Tom & Jerry LIVE!

By
on
36

You can have your Lion King or Shrek The Musical… Me, I want my Tom and Jerry Live! Last night in Argentina was the off-off-off-off-Broadway debut of a new stage musical based on Hanna-Barbera cartoon superstars.

The show opened this weekend at Teatro Lola Membrives in Buenos Aires, then will travel to theaters in Chile and Peru during 2011. According to the show’s website:

Under the direction of Leandro Panetta, Tom, Jerry, Spike and the gang go on stage, recreating classic cartoons with songs, chases, jokes, games and stunts. Tom and Jerry travel from opera to medieval times, then run and chase from the living room into the garden. Actors, dancers, singers and acrobats on stage guide to the public in this magical world where Friendship is always the result of each and every encounter persecution.

The show is constructed around specific cartoon shorts, including The Two Mouseketeers, The Cat Above the Mouse Below and the Gene Kelly sequence from Anchors Aweigh. However, based on the initial reviews and the costumes pictured above, I’m glad Bill and Joe aren’t around to see this. What’s that between Tom’s legs? Is he defecating, or is that his “willie“… or is it his tail?

(Thanks, Jorge Finkielman)

Digital Domain Sets Up Florida Shop, Aims To Be Next Pixar

By
on
69

Digital Domain

Visual effects house Digital Domain is building a $40 million, 120,000-square foot studio in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The plan: expand beyond service work for live-action features and create “extremely clean, family films that are memorable, strong, powerful stories.” Since feature animation is quite nearly the most lucrative thing going in Hollywood right now, everybody wants a piece of the action. Digital Domain is moving in the direction of vfx shops like Sony Imageworks and more recently ILM, which released its first original production, Rango, earlier this year. DD has already greenlit an idea for its first feature (what is it?) and hopes to have it in theaters by 2014.

The only hitch is that Digital Domain has been talking about creating original content since the mid-1990s. The company tried to launch an IPO a few years back which failed to ignite interest from investors. Now, they’re getting ready to try the IPO again. This time they hope the results will be different. For starters, the state of Florida and the city of Port St. Lucie has awarded them $70 million worth of incentive grants to set up shop down there. Second, they’ve hired Disney animator and Brother Bear co-director Aaron Blaise to helm their first feature, presumably so that he will recreate some of that Brother Bear magic.

They’ve also hired the executive producer of Brother Bear, Chuck Williams, who told the TCPalm that, “As Pixar is struggling with sequels and Disney’s struggling to find itself, I think it’s a good time for us to come in with a different point of view with great family films.” Frankly, other studios would kill to struggle as much as Disney/Pixar, which created the top grossing film at the worldwide box office last year, plus another animated feature in the top ten.

Plenty more details about DD’s plans in this TCPalm article, including this bit:

In exchange for incentives, the company agreed to create up to 500 jobs with an average annual salary of $65,000 by 2014. The company, now at 243 employees, is on its way to overwhelmingly exceeding that goal.

According to the article, only 15 of those employees work in its feature animation division. The photo up top is of (l. to r.) Chuck Williams, Aaron Blaise, and Craig Grasso. There’s also a solo photo of Aaron Blaise accompanying the TCPalm piece which has a special surprise that I’ve highlighted below:

Aaron Blaise

I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything, but as a rule of thumb, if you’re launching a new animation studio, it’s a smart idea to make sure that logos of other studios’ animated films aren’t visible in publicity shots.

“La Detente” by Bertrand Bey and Pierre Ducos

By
on
3

La Détente, a new short by Bertrand Bey and Pierre Ducos of London’s Not To Scale, has been selected to compete at Annecy 2011.

La Détente is an animated short movie set in a trench during the first World War, where a French soldier becomes paralyzed with fear. His mind disconnects from reality and he escapes into a dream world where wars are fought by toys.

Sounds good, looks great. It was recently screened at the Cannes film festival and is currently making the rounds at European film festivals. Here’s the trailer:

“Frog Raccoon Strawberry” Takes on Grumpy Cartoon Historians

By
on
25

Amid Amidi

In today’s edition of Kyle Carrozza and John Berry’s Frog Raccoon Strawberry, January and Strawberry attend a cartoon convention where they encounter a grouchy and pedantic animation historian named Imad Imadi. I’m so glad I don’t know anybody like that.

(Thanks, TempleDog)